By Sara Ballenger
The Los Altos School Board of Trustees decided at its May 20 meeting to try again for an increase in the parcel tax .
The board is scheduled to adopt a resolution to formally put the parcel tax on the November ballot at a special meeting, June 10. They will also determine the amount of the increase to be requested for the parcel tax.
The tax measure will be going before voters in a general election November 5. An earlier parcel tax increase (from its current $264 to $597), failed to get the required two-thirds majority vote in a special election April 9.
“The key issue that I see is that more than a third of our parents who are registered voters did not vote,” said Marge Gratiot superintendent of the Los Altos School District. “Was that because they didn’t think it was important? Did they forget about the election or were they not able to find their polling place? Did they not understand the issues well enough to be motivated to vote? Somehow, neither I nor the campaign organization was successful in communicating the urgency of the matter.”
In hopes to avoid duplicating the results of the April 9 election, Keep Los Altos School Strong (KLASS) which ran the parcel tax campaign, presented the board with a campaign report.
“About 31 percent of the people who told us they would vote yes didn’t go to the polls,” said Richard Hasenpflug, co-chairman of the KLASS campaign. “The spirit of the community on April 9 was completely different than on April 10. If we had the election next Tuesday, I am sure it would pass. We just didn’t have the parent support we needed on April 9.”
Hasenpflug said KLASS’ analysis of the campaign revealed that the amount of the parcel tax increase - 125 percent, confusing ballot language, being a special election and skepticism were underlying factors in the campaign’s failure.
“There was a skepticism around what was being said, in terms of if the money was needed or not. It was a level of skepticism I hadn’t encountered in previous elections,” he said. “We cannot operate in this continual fund-raising mode. The broader community needs to support education. The parents can’t be responsible for rescuing the district.”
Hasenpflug and co-chairwomen Debbie Torok and Claudia Hevel hope that living the “doom and gloom” of making $4.4 million in cuts throughout the district will be the momentum needed to pass the tax.
“We have to reach the voters on a more broad level,” Hasenpflug told the board. “We need a series of studies to look at our options and get feedback. But, there is no way you can do a meaningful study of options, get community feedback and formally adopt it by Aug. 9.”
By law, the board must adopt the resolution to place the measure on the ballot before Aug. 9.
The campaign for the new parcel tax will stem from the April 9 campaign.
“We don’t think the campaign ended on April 9,” Torok said. “We are still educating people about this issue, which has been successful.”
Hevel echoed Torok’s statement.
“The urgency of passing the parcel tax is being communicated through these budget cuts that we are enduring,” Hevel said.
For more information about the parcel tax campaign, logon to: www.KLASScampaign.org.
